CHOOSING AN OCCUPATION.
By Martha Clark Rankin
[Martha Clark Rankin, in Christian Work.] To MOST boys and some girls comes the necessity for choosing an occupation, a life-work. The importance of such a choice can hardly be over-estimated, since it often shapes and colors the whole life. If we were to see a man building a boat, and were to ask him what use he expected to make of it, and he should answer: "I don't know. I may use it for a ferryboat, or a pleasure boat, or a fishing boat, or I may cross the ocean in it," we would at once see his folly. We would know that a wise man would not expect the same boat to answer all these purposes equally well. He would first make up his mind what he was going to do with his boat, and then he would build the style of boat best fitted for that purpose. Yet such a boat-builder would not be more foolish than is the boy who chooses his life's occupation without stopping to consider for what he is best fitted, of what he is capable, or toward what he is aiming as the chief object of his life. In every community there are men whom everybody looks upon as miserable failures. They were bright boys, they gave promise of ability, but somehow they have never amounted to much. In some cases, the explanation is not far to seek. Bad habits have undermined the constitution, weakened the will, and clouded the intellect, and no one wonders that they are failures. But others have led exemplary lives, and their lack of success seems to be almost wholly due to a wrong choice of occupation. They are not fitted for the work which they have undertaken, and they do it in a poor, half-hearted fashion. Too late, they regret the careless, thoughtless manner in which the choice was made. Some boys have so strong a natural inclination or talent for some one kind of work that the choice is virtually made for them; but where this is not the case, a little experimenting will usually show what one can do to the best advantage. The first question that he should ask himself is: "What do I want to make of my life? what is my chief aim and ambition?" If it be a worthy one, the next step is to find whether he is fitted for such a career. If he suffers from physical weakness or deformity, he sees at once that he is debarred from certain forms of activity; if he has no ear for music or15rhythm, he will hardly try to be a musician or a poet; if he is built for a blacksmith, it would be unwise to try to be a bookkeeper. When the choice has been once decided upon, then earnest, painstaking work must follow, with eyes and ears open to discover the best way of doing things, and an enthusiasm which makes labor a delight. With such a careful choice and such firm determination, a young man need have little fear of failure. The Sabbath-school lessons have been discontinued. The Lesson Quarterly may be obtained, containing three months' lessons and notes, for five cents. Address, Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal. The Sunday-school lessons will continue.